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Model S roadtrip: get all the adapters?

I'll be travelling from Portland, OR to Sonoma, CA in August. In looking at plugshare and other sites, I think I can find charge points, but it's not always clear what sort of plug they have. Should I spend the $150 and get the other adapters in Tesla's store? The 10-30, 14-30, and 6-50?

I am gearing up for road trips as well... and getting all the adapters and apparently so are a bunch of other folks. they are getting hard to find. it's cheap insurance and don't forget, there is a big difference in charging speed between 30, 40 and 50 amps! ... a big difference in how many fish and chips you will need to eat!

More adapters are always better, just in case. If cost is not an issue, pick 'em up.

That said, after a few years of EV road trips, I've never personally come across a 6-50. The only time I've seen a 10-30 or 14-30 I could use is when I was visiting somebody's house. 14-50's are as fast as anything aside from Tesla chargers and campgrounds are everywhere (though not every campground has 50A service, check first!). And 110V can fill any honest-to-goodness emergency and get you enough power to get to the nearest J1722 or 14-50.

So if you don't want to pay for more adapters (or if Tesla doesn't have them in stock in time), you are likely to be fine with just the J1772, 14-50 and 110V adapters that come with the car.

EDIT: another way of looking at it:

With the adapters that come with the car, you should never be stranded. But there is a small chance that you might be able to charge up faster if you have some of the other adapters. While not likely to happen, you will definitely want an adapter if it does happen!

Chad, do you know what the old version of the 14-50 that some camp grounds have. I was told that some older campgrounds have an "old style" plug. while on Orcas island last weekend they had two different 240 plugs at parking sites, neither was a 14-50. One was a 14-30 the other one looked like a 10-30 but I missed my chance to take a photo... was wrangling two kids for mother's day. All the EV project home blink chargers use a 6-50, so at least in this area there are thousands of them, including my garage, lots on plug share, allowing 40A (30 mph) instead of the J1772 30A of the blinks that are plugged into them. the 10-30 is nice to have on hand for friends homes with electric dryers or one's own home, for that matter, as a back up to the HPWC or Tesla EVSE.

More adapters are always better, just in case. If cost is not an issue, pick 'em up.

That said, after a few years of EV road trips, I've never personally come across a 6-50. The only time I've seen a 10-30 or 14-30 I could use is when I was visiting somebody's house. 14-50's are as fast as anything aside from Tesla chargers and campgrounds are everywhere (though not every campground has 50A service, check first!). And 110V can fill any honest-to-goodness emergency and get you enough power to get to the nearest J1722 or 14-50.

So if you don't want to pay for more adapters (or if Tesla doesn't have them in stock in time), you are likely to be fine with just the J1772, 14-50 and 110V adapters that come with the car.

No, sorry, I have never seen 240V service at a campground other than a 50A 14-50. (Campgrounds get confused if you say "240V" or "14-50"; always say "50 amp"). I did once hear somebody say that he thought some old campgrounds (really old, largely on the East coast) had something different, but that's all I can recall.

Most campgrounds do have TT-30 outlets (which look pretty similar to a 240V 10-30), but they are 110V 30A. Often times campground hosts will tell you they are 240V, but they are not. TT-30 pic:

No, sorry, I have never seen 240V service at a campground other than a 50A 14-50. (Campgrounds get confused if you say "240V" or "14-50"; always say "50 amp"). I did once hear somebody say that he thought some old campgrounds (really old, largely on the East coast) had something different, but that's all I can recall.

Most campgrounds do have TT-30 outlets (which look pretty similar to a 240V 10-30), but they are 110V 30A. Often times campground hosts will tell you they are 240V, but they are not. TT-30 pic:

No, sorry, I have never seen 240V service at a campground other than a 50A 14-50. (Campgrounds get confused if you say "240V" or "14-50"; always say "50 amp"). I did once hear somebody say that he thought some old campgrounds (really old, largely on the East coast) had something different, but that's all I can recall.

Most campgrounds do have TT-30 outlets (which look pretty similar to a 240V 10-30), but they are 110V 30A. Often times campground hosts will tell you they are 240V, but they are not. TT-30 pic:

Scaesare, I have not experimented with a Model S, but I'd bet that you are correct - if you charge at 110V using the UMC, no matter what you are plugged in to, if it goes through the UMC's 110V 5-15 adapter, you won't be able to go over 16A. That's because the UMC knows which of its adapters is connected and what the limit is for that. Tesla could conceivably come out with a 110V TT-30 adapter for the UMC, and then you could charge at 24A - but I doubt they have any plans to make that adapter.

Michigan, your adapter can theoretically get around the 16A limit because it's using a 240V UMC adapter. But what will the Model S do when it sees 110V coming over a 240V adapter? Again, I haven't tried it. My guess is that it will charge the car as it is capable of using a wide range of volts and amps. But I fear that if it senses 110V, even through the 240V adapter, it may limit you to 16A. I think I remember somebody hitting that with a Roadster. Maybe not, I'm less sure about that one - it might happen to let you go up to 40A as long as you are using the 14-50 UMC adapter (though I don't recommend you do). Let us know what happens if you try it!

I've tested this with my own EVSE, and the Model S itself detects that the incoming voltage as 120V and reduces the maximum current to 20A even though my EVSE was announcing 80A available on the pilot.

I've tried connecting a 120V input to my Tesla EVSE via the 6-50 input and that resulted in a red light on the EVSE, and didn't even get as far as plugging into the car.

This adapter will not work with a UMC. RVs only use 120 volt appliances so with this adapter the 2 14-50 hot terminals are tied together and feed from the same 120 volt hot terminal of the TT-30 with the neutral terminal connected to neutral. When plugged in this connector has 0 volt potential between the two hot pins and the same phase of 120 volts from either hot to neutral. Since the neutral is not connected in the UMC it will see this connection as a no power connection.

This adapter will not work with a UMC. RVs only use 120 volt appliances so with this adapter the 2 14-50 hot terminals are tied together and feed from the same 120 volt hot terminal of the TT-30 with the neutral terminal connected to neutral. When plugged in this connector has 0 volt potential between the two hot pins and the same phase of 120 volts from either hot to neutral. Since the neutral is not connected in the UMC it will see this connection as a no power connection.

Click to expand...

Thanks. Disappointing to hear. And glad I posted that before I take my 300 mile road trip this August.

Tesla's UMC seems to have a built in limit of 20A when charging from a 120V source. The only way to get this from a TT-30 30A connection at a campground is to use a home made adapter to convert Tesla's 14-50 adapter to a TT-30. This is documented (and many more home made adapters are documented) in this PDF: http://cosmacelf.net/Home%20Made%20Adapters.pdf

Tesla's UMC seems to have a built in limit of 20A when charging from a 120V source. The only way to get this from a TT-30 30A connection at a campground is to use a home made adapter to convert Tesla's 14-50 adapter to a TT-30. This is documented (and many more home made adapters are documented) in this PDF: http://cosmacelf.net/Home%20Made%20Adapters.pdf

Chad, do you know what the old version of the 14-50 that some camp grounds have. I was told that some older campgrounds have an "old style" plug. while on Orcas island last weekend they had two different 240 plugs at parking sites, neither was a 14-50. One was a 14-30 the other one looked like a 10-30 but I missed my chance to take a photo... was wrangling two kids for mother's day. All the EV project home blink chargers use a 6-50, so at least in this area there are thousands of them, including my garage, lots on plug share, allowing 40A (30 mph) instead of the J1772 30A of the blinks that are plugged into them. the 10-30 is nice to have on hand for friends homes with electric dryers or one's own home, for that matter, as a back up to the HPWC or Tesla EVSE.

Click to expand...

In addition to the blink chargers, the plug-in version of the GE WattStation also uses a 6-50 plug. I have one in my garage.